According to the Associated Press, Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio “has snagged a coveted speaking spot on the final night of the Republican National Convention.”
Arpaio, who has campaigned alongside Donald Trump, was recently found “in civil contempt of court for violating three of his orders stemming” from a “long-running racial-profiling case” where he is accused of targeting Hispanic residents.
Just yesterday, Arpaio was stripped of some of his oversight authority and has asked the federal judge presiding over the profiling case for leniency as he will “learn as soon as Friday whether he’ll be referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution for contempt of court. “
Racial profiling is just one of a long list of abuses committed by Arpaio and his office.
Arpaio brags about running a “concentration camp” for his detainees and has a record of withholding basic medical care from prisoners and flouting sanitary standards. His office has reportedly ignored over 400 sex-crime cases, targeted Latino residents and neighborhoods, stalked Latina women and retaliated against those who criticized Arpaio.
In one case, members of Arpaio’s department staged a hoax assassination attempt against the sheriff to enhance his popularity, framing an innocent man in the process. Arpaio hired people with records of domestic violence and child sex crimes to work in his armed “posse” guarding schools in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre.
The sheriff also tapped birther conspiracy theorists to form a “cold case posse” to investigate the truth behind President Obama’s birth certificate, and unsurprisingly concluded that it was a fake.
It is no wonder, then, why Arpaio has become a Republican icon
